British agent Alec Leamas (played by Burton) has grown cynical about the espionage game. His boss at MI6, known only as Control (Cyril Cusack), gives Leamas a chance to restore his reputation in the agency by participating in a complex plot to bring down Hans-Dieter Mundt (Peter van Eyck), the head of East German intelligence operations and the man who has overseen the assassinations of several of Leamas’s colleagues. Briefed by Control and fellow agent George Smiley (Rupert Davies), Leamas is told that the plan involves framing Mundt as a double agent so that he will be executed by his own side. As part of the scheme, Leamas feigns being an alcoholic, and MI6 pretends to fire him. Leamas then spends time in prison for a violent assault on a store clerk. After being released, he gets a job at a library, where he meets and begins dating Nan Perry (Claire Bloom), a young woman with communist leanings.

As expected, Leamas is eventually contacted by East German agents, who use his presumed resentment of MI6 as a lure to make him defect. Leamas is taken to East Germany, where he is debriefed by Fiedler (Oskar Werner), who works for, but despises, Mundt. Leamas hints to Fiedler that Mundt might have been a double agent who accepted bribes from MI6. Mundt is arrested by East German security forces and put on trial. Fiedler presents evidence against the spymaster, but Perry is unexpectedly brought in as a witness. The confused woman unwittingly admits to being Leamas’s girlfriend and says she has met with Smiley, who apparently arranged to pay the rent on her London flat. Mundt makes the case that Leamas and Fiedler are part of an MI6 scheme to discredit him and have him executed. Both Leamas and Fiedler are arrested, along with Perry. Shortly thereafter Leamas is freed by Mundt, who actually is a double agent for the British. Leamas realizes that he and Perry have been used as pawns by MI6 and that Fiedler was the intended target of the plot all along. Leamas and Perry are taken to the Berlin Wall and told to climb over it near a blind spot. However, a sniper fatally shoots Perry. On the western side of the wall, Smiley shouts for Leamas to jump to safety. Leamas, disillusioned and betrayed, instead climbs back down to Perry’s body and is shot dead.

As with most le Carré adaptations, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold requires careful attention by the viewer, but the twists and turns prove to be ingenious. The film was a critical success, with director Martin Ritt and cinematographer Oswald Morris earning particular praise. However, the bleak film attracted little interest among moviegoers, who were possibly more interested in the glamorous espionage world popularized by the James Bond series. Interestingly, Bernard Lee, who portrayed “M” in a number of 007 films, had a small role as a shopkeeper.

Production notes and credits

Studio: Salem Films Limited

Director and producer: Martin Ritt

Writers: Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper

Music: Sol Kaplan

Running time: 112 minutes

Cast

Richard Burton (Alec Leamas)

Claire Bloom (Nan Perry)

Oskar Werner (Fiedler)

Sam Wannamaker (Peters)

Academy Award nominations

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...Outrage (1964), which again starred Newman, was a less-than-successful attempt to transform Kurosawa Akira’s Rashomon (1950) into a western. Ritt bounced back with The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965), a grim transposition of a popular John le Carré novel with Richard Burton in what is widely regarded as one of the best...

November 10, 1925 Pontrhydyfen, Wales August 5, 1984 Geneva, Switzerland Welsh stage and motion-picture actor noted for his portrayals of highly intelligent and articulate men who are world-weary, cynical, or self-destructive.